George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
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George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Messiah Handel was, like most composers of his day, a fast worker, but few of his scores show such evidence of having been written at white heat as that of Messiah, which was set down on paper in a mere 24 days, between 22 August and 14 September 1741. Earlier the same year he had received an invitation from the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to visit Dublin in order to give some concerts in aid of charitable institutions in the city, and it was probably with this impending concert tour in view that he composed his new oratorio. His early biographer John Mainwaring, in his Memoirs of the Life of the late George Frederic Handel published in 1760, a year after the composer's death, seems to have been responsible for the widely credited theory that Handel went to Ireland after "his Messiah had met with a cold reception" in London, and because "he hoped to find that favour and encouragement in a distant capital, which London seemed to refuse him", but there is no evidence that this was so. Indeed a copy of Mainwaring's book carries a terse note in the margin, in the hand of its original owner, Charles Jennens (who, as Handel's collaborator, had good cause to know) that "Messiah was not performed in London till after his return from Ireland." Moreover, Charles Burney (who as a 15-year-old school boy in Chester witnessed a rehearsal of some of the choruses in Messiah that Handel held there in November 1741 while on his way from London to Dublin) devoted several paragraphs of his General History of Music (1776-89) to proving the falseness of Mainwaring's assertion. Burney also left the following graphic description of the Chester episode. When Handel went through Chester on his way to Ireland in the year 1741, I was at the Public-School in that city, and very well remember seeing him smoke a pipe over a dish of coffee, at the Exchange Coffeehouse, for being extremely curious to see so extraordinary a man, I watched him narrowly as long as he remained in Chester; which, on account of the wind being unfavourable for his embarking at Parkgate, was several days. During this time, he applied to Mr Baker, the Organist, my first music- master, to know whether there were any choir-men in the cathedral who could sing at sight, as he wished to prove some books that had been hastily transcribed, by trying the choruses which he intended to perform in Ireland. Mr Baker mentioned some of the most likely singers then in Chester and, among, the rest, a printer of the name of Janson, who had a good base voice, and was one of the best musicians in the choir... A time was fixed for this private rehearsal at the Golden Falcon where Handel was quartered; but alas! on trial of the chorus in the "Messiah" 'And with his stripes we are healed', - poor Janson after repeated attempts, failed so egregiously, that Handel let loose his great bear upon him; and after swearing in four languages, cried out in broken English: 'You scoundrel! Did not you dell me that you could sing at sight?' - 'Yes sir,' says the printer, 'and so I can; but not at first sight'."The first performance of Messiah, on 13 April 1742, was the culminating point of Handel's stay in Dublin. It was given at Neal's Music Hall in Fishamble Street, a room designed to hold about 600 people but which, thanks to an announcement in Faulkner's Dublin Journal which intimated that "The stewards of the Charitable Musical Society request the favour of the Ladies not to come with Hoops this Day" and that "The Gentlemen are desired to come without their swords", in fact managed to accommodate an audience of 700. The orchestra was led by Matthew Dubourg, the soprano soloists were "Signora Avolio" (Christina Maria Avoglio) and Mrs Maclean, the Contralto Susannah Maria Cibber (the sister of Thomas Arne, and an actress, of whom, according to Burney, Handel was very fond and whose "voice and manners... softened his severity for her want of musical knowledge"), the male altos William Lamb and Joseph Ward, the tenor James Bailey and the bass John Mason, and there was a chorus of sixteen men and sixteen boys drawn from the choirs of St Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church. On 17 April Faulkner's Dublin Journal printed the following notice: "On Tuesday last Mr Handel's Sacred Grand Oratorio, the MESSIAH, was performed at the New Musick-Hall in Fishamble Street; the best Judges allowed it to be the most finished piece of Musick. Words are wanting to express the exquisite Delight it afforded to the admiring crowded Audience. The Sublime, the Grand and the Tender; adapted to the most elevated, majestic and moving Words, conspired to transport and charm the ravished Heart and Ear. It is but Justice to Mr Handel, that the World should know, he generously gave the Money arising from this Grand Performance, to be equally shared by the Society for relieving Prisoners, the Charitable Informary, and Mercer's Hospital, for which they will ever gratefully remember his name..."Messiah was performed for the first time in England a year later, on 23 March 1743, at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, with at least two of the soloists who had sung in the Dublin performance: Signora Avolio and Mrs Cibber. To the widely-voiced objection that a playhouse was not a fit place in which to perform an oratorio, a reply, "wrote extempore by a Gentleman", was printed in The Daily Advertiser on 31 March: Cease, Zealots, cease to blame these Heav'nly Lays, For Seraphs fit to sing Messiah's praise! Nor, for your trivial Argument, assign, "The Theatre not fit for Praise Divine." These hallow'd Lays to Musick give new Grace, To Virtue Awe, and sanctify the Place; To Harmony, like his Celestial Pow'r is giv'n, T'exalt the Soul from Earth, and make, of Hell, a Heav'n. The anonymous gentlemen was very probably Charles Jennens (1700-73), who had compiled the text of Messiah, and who summed up its spirit in the words he wrote to preface the original wordbook: "And without Controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifested in the Flesh, justified by the Spirit, Seen of Angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the World, received up in Glory, in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge." It stands apart from Handel's other oratorios (except Israel in Egypt) in that its text is taken exclusively from the Bible (Part I devoted to the coming of the Messiah; Part II to the sufferings and death of Christ; Part III to the Resurrection), and in Handel's day it was referred to as "The Sacred Oratorio". This fact, coupled with the consistently high level of the music itself, the high proportion of choral movements, the relatively straightforward nature of the arias (in which vocal display is reduced to a minimum), and the simplicity of the scoring (basically strings and continuo – the only forces used in the Dublin performance – with sparing, though immensely telling, use of oboes, trumpets and drums, added for the London performances) has made it one of the most frequently performed and loved of all oratorios. But although the complete sincerity of Handel's religious feelings in composing Messiah is beyond question (it will be remembered that, just after he had written down the music of the Hallelujah chorus, he allegedly told his manservant with tears streaming from his eyes: "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself"), it would be wrong to think of it as being in any way a didactic or liturgical work. Even Jennens once described it as a "fine Entertainment", and Handel wrote it, like all his oratorios (many of which are operas in all but name) for performance not in a church but in a concert hall or theatre. Some 56 performances of Messiah were given in England between 1743 and Handel's death in 1759, all but 12 of them in secular places of entertainment. King George II, who attended one of them, was so moved by the fervour of the Hallelujah Chorus that he rose to his feet, the audience following his example. The habit persists to this day in England, even in the absence of royalty – and even though nobody stands for the mighty Sanctus of Bach's Mass in B Minor. Handel himself performed the oratorio on various occasions at the Foundling Hospital, and from the Minute Books of that institution we learn that for all of them he had an orchestra of 12 or 14 violins, three violas, three 'cellos, two double basses, four oboes, four bassoons, two trumpets, two horns (they presumably doubled the trumpets, no separate parts having survived), and drums and a chorus of some two dozen men and boys. Many of these performances saw some modification or alteration of the music to fit the particular circumstances (notably the characteristics of different soloists): these include alternative versions of No. 6 (But who may abide the day of his coming?) for soprano, alto and bass: of No. 18 (Rejoice greatly) in 12/8 and 4/4; of No. 20 (He shall feed his flock) for soprano, and for alto and soprano; of No. 29 (Thy rebuke hath broken his heart); No.